Behind Blue Eyes
By Thalia Drogna
AN: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. It's nice to know what you're all thinking. Couple of things to clear up:
Time line: I admit that I'm taking liberties here, but as I see it, Trip's been in Star Fleet for 12 years, I think this is mentioned in the first series, so I'm assuming that's a round figure and he was an Ensign for about a year and a half, he was promoted to Lieutenant (he's smart and in a specialist area so it could happen), served three years in Special Projects, came back and started work at the Warp Five Complex where he met Archer towards the end of that same year.
Passive voice: I know from experience that you guys on the other side of the pond don't like passive voice much. Personally I quite like it for flash backs and I think this is one of those cultural differences in use of English.
Aeryn10 suggested that Malcolm was too easily able to find out the information about Special Projects. My reasoning is that if anyone can hack into protected security systems then it would be Malcolm, after all he knows all the tricks because he's put security measures in to stop the same thing happening. Plus Special Projects was disbanded over ten years ago so these are very old files that we are talking about. He isn't actually able to find out the details of individual missions, just some broad details about the kind of missions they were given.
Trip's general ineptitude in combat: again, yes, I am taking liberties with what we see on screen. But for the purposes of this story, he's inept most of the time because he's pretending to be, and the rest of the time because he's holding back or over thinking.
Since I know that I have at least a couple of astronomers reading this, I apologise in advance for the Trek style science in this chapter. I've done my best to be accurate but I've probably missed something. My Beta ed picked holes in it, but then he is an astrophysicist and can actually do the equations behind this, something I'll never manage in a month of Sundays.
Anyway, enough explanation...on with the story.
No one knows what it's like,
To feel these feelings,
Like I do,
And I blame you.
– Behind Blue Eyes, The Who
"That is impossible, Commander," said T'Pol. When Trip had explained about the Hawking radiation she hadn't been able to keep quiet any longer.
"No it isn't," said Trip. "Believe me, I've seen it."
"You are talking about extracting energy from a fundamental force of the universe," said T'Pol.
"They were using the Hawking radiation. You know as well as I do that the Heisenberg Quantum Uncertainty Principle allows for it, we've just never actually observed it," said Trip.
"Hawking radiation has not been proven to exist," replied T'Pol. "The Vulcan Science Directorate has been conducting research in this field for a number of years but has no conclusive proof."
"I'm telling you, T'Pol. That's what it was. I'll get you the schematics from the scans we took and you can look for yourself," said Trip.
"Commander, you will not give those schematics to anyone," said Colonel Darwin. Least of all a Vulcan he added to himself, no matter who she is.
"Could someone please translate for those of us that don't have an advanced physics degree," said Archer.
"The Commander found a particular type of radiation which indicates a black hole to be present," said T'Pol. "Although there is still debate about whether the radiation which he found does actually exist."
"Oh, it exists alright. It's all to do with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle," said Trip. "When you get below a certain size you leave behind Newtonian physics, large scale physics, and you get into Quantum physics. The tiny particles that we can't even pick up on an electron microscope. Everything behaves in kind of a weird way once you get that small and there are some pretty strange things going on when you try to take measurements. Basically when you get down to the quantum level you can't be certain of anything, you can measure one variable but not two simultaneously, hence Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Between the measurements exists a whole bunch of virtual particles which we're not normally aware of and they form particle pairs, anti-particle with particle, to balance the quantum variables. If that happens on the edge of a black hole event horizon then one particle gets sucked into the black hole and the other particle gets spewed out. That's what gives you the radiation, that particle escaping from the gravitational field of the black hole, it has to stop being virtual and become real because it's lost its partner. And that's putting it simply without all the math."
"That explanation is exceedingly simplistic, Commander, and scientifically inaccurate," said T'Pol.
Trip sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's close enough."
"If that's the simple version, I don't want to hear the long version," said Archer.
"I had to put up with this the first time around," said Darwin. "You have no idea."
It was a beautiful, clear, cold, night in the desert, with stars showing through patchy cloud cover which cast strange shadows across the sand. Most of the MACOs had been asleep for a couple of hours by this point, except Rush who had been left on guard duty. Trip ran from his tent to that of Major Darwin.
"Major! You have no idea what we've got here," said Trip shaking his Commanding Officer awake.
"Trip, it's oh one hundred, what the hell are you doing up? Get some sleep for god's sake. Whatever it is can wait until morning. It's been sitting here for four thousand years already," said Darwin, instantly alert but still angry that Trip had woken him.
"You don't understand, we're sitting on a quantum singularity," said Trip. "A Hawking Radiation powered generator."
"I've told you this before. I don't speak tech. English, Trip, English," replied Darwin.
"Sorry, sir," said Trip and he explained about exactly what it was that they'd found in the chamber below the ruined building. An alien power supply, a generator that used a black hole as it's power source. "It's not a big one," finished Trip, "but actually if it had been bigger it would have generated less power."
"How can that be possible?" asked Darwin and then just as Trip was about to tell him he held up his hand. "No, on second thoughts, I don't want to know. Go back to bed, we'll discuss this in the morning. You won't be any good to us if you're too tired to use that brain of yours."
Trip looked disappointed. "Sorry, sir," said Trip. He gave a half-hearted salute and left his Commanding Officer to go back to sleep.
"Engineers," said Darwin with fake disgust as he settled back down in his sleeping bag, intending Trip to hear him as he walked away. Trip just gave a half smile as he wandered back to his own tent. He couldn't sleep though and decided there was only one place he could go. He wandered back down through the eerie corridors of the underground complex to the generator room, as he'd christened it. Someone else was already there though.
"Hello?" said Trip as he heard movement up ahead. He heard a crash as someone dropped something, obviously startled by his approach.
"Trip?" said a female voice with a distinct British accent.
"Antonia, shouldn't you be in bed?" he asked.
"Shouldn't you?" she asked in reply, smiling and dark brown eyes sparkling in the cold white light from the white oval in the corner.
"I couldn't resist another look," said Trip. "Besides I got about an hour or so. I can sleep all I want when we're back on the Thak Tikh on our way home." He explained to Antonia about his theory of the black hole power source. She wasn't a physicist but she got the general gist of what he was trying to explain.
"Wow," said Antonia. "If we weren't standing on an alien planet, inside a room with a light which vanishes when you look at, I don't think I would have believed you. But then I wouldn't have just translated this either." She pointed to something written on one of the computer readouts.
"What?" asked Trip.
"Didier and I were able to put together an alphabet and a sort of dictionary for the alien language. His linguistics knowledge and my cultural knowledge meant we could put this together a bit quicker than either of us would have taken alone. Their written language is a combination of phonetic symbols and hieroglyphs, sort of like modern Japanese, they seem to have used several different alphabets. Anyway the phrase "dark door" keeps coming up. I'm guessing that's their equivalent phrase for black hole."
"Sounds like a good theory," replied Trip.
"But then there's this phrase here which we think means "bright door"," said Antonia.
"A white hole?" suggested Trip.
"What's a white hole?" asked Antonia.
"Opposite of a black hole. It's supposed to spew matter out into the universe, whereas a black hole sucks it in. That's kind of a simplistic explanation but that's basically what it's supposed to be. Except that no one has ever been able to observe one and unlike black holes we'd expect to be able to see them. A lot of physicists think they don't really exist at all."
"What about that?" asked Antonia pointing to the white oval of light in the corner. "Could it be a white hole?"
"Nah, wrong readings. It's not throwing anything but light out. A white hole would be radiating on all spectrums and we really wouldn't want to be standing here. It'd be like being in the same room as an atomic bomb," said Trip.
"If it isn't a white hole then what is it?" asked Antonia.
"I'm not sure," said Trip. "It's definitely not just a light source. There are controls beside it that look pretty important. Could be your "bright door" though, it doesn't have to mean white hole."
"Would be rather neat if it is what this text refers to," said Antonia.
"Don't suppose you've managed to translate anything about a containment field?" asked Trip.
"Not so far," replied Antonia. "Are you looking for one?"
"Something has to be holding this singularity in place and stopping it from running out of control," replied Trip.
"I'll keep looking," said Antonia.
"Every time I turn my scanner on I find something new in here," said Trip, taking more readings from the metal sphere in the centre of the room. He then moved on to the support beams that ran from the ceiling, they certainly weren't there to hold up the black hole, only the mechanism around it.
"When the Major contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in coming to Faranor I didn't expect to find this," said Antonia.
"Why did you agree to come?" asked Trip. "Can't be much fun hanging out with group of MACOs and an Engineer."
"I've had worse company on digs. And when someone offers a xeno- archaeologist the chance to dig on an alien planet, further away than they've ever been before, well the how and why doesn't really matter. Of course I wasn't expecting the Thak Tikh but I know how to keep my mouth shut. For years my father couldn't talk about his work, it was just an accepted part of life."
"What did your father do?" asked Trip.
"He was a MACO General. Used to be Darwin's superior, but he retired some years ago now," replied Antonia.
"He was Special Forces too?" asked Trip. He suspected that Darwin had already known that when he recruited Antonia.
"Must have been, although he would never tell me," replied Antonia.
"Well that's the way it works," said Trip. "If anyone asks who I'm working for I'm supposed to say that we're a classified research unit. You didn't want to join the MACOs like your Dad?"
"No. It's fine to play weekend soldier but I wouldn't want to make a career of it. And I'm not exactly one for military discipline, being in the TA taught me that," said Antonia.
"Neither am I, but I seem to do okay, but then Star Fleet isn't exactly the MACOs," said Trip.
"You seem to fit right in with these guys," said Antonia.
"Well it took a while, but eventually they succumbed to the old Tucker charm," smiled Trip.
Antonia smiled in reply. She turned back to her work and they continued on in companionable silence, occasionally stopping to ask the other a question. Trip knew that it must be nearly morning and the rest of the team would be getting up soon, his stomach reminded him about breakfast. He was about to ask Antonia if she wanted a break, when she called him over.
"Trip, you have to look at this," said Antonia.
"What is it?" he asked.
"This passage here," said Antonia. "I think this generator might have another use. Look at these plans, they show the sphere and the white light being used in conjunction. This symbol here means "weapon" and this combination means "planet destruction", "doomsday"."
"We'd better tell the Major," said Trip, a worried look on his face.
Antonia nodded and collected her padds up. Just then Trip's communicator beeped.
"Darwin to Trip," said the Major.
"Trip here. I was just about to come and get you. Antonia and I have found something you might want to see down here."
"What is it?"
"Antonia translated some more of the computer readouts. We think that this black hole generator is also a weapon," said Trip.
"That could be a problem," said Darwin. "We've got some contacts coming in from the west, probably Faranoans, and Hathaway commed in to say that the Klingons are definitely on course for Faranor, they'll be here in less then four hours."
"Great, just great," said Trip.
"We need to get that generator out of here," said Darwin.
"I'm not sure that it's even possible to move this thing," said Trip.
"Find me a way, Lieutenant," said Darwin. "Or if we can't move it, then find me a way to destroy it."
"You don't know what you're asking, sir. This isn't like a phase cannon, it's a black hole we're talking about," said Trip.
"All we need to do is make sure the Klingons can't use it," said Darwin. "I know you can do it, Lieutenant. You've got four hours. Darwin out."
"Yes, sir," said Trip, closing his communicator. He was already tired from a night working on the generator schematics, now he had to come up with some way to either take the generator with them or destroy it. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think.
"Anything I can do to help?" asked Antonia.
"Keep at that translation," said Trip, opening his eyes again. "I need as much information as possible on how this thing works."
"I'll get Didier down here to help," said Antonia.
"Good idea," said Trip. "Better get Carter too. No one knows weapons like he does, even if it is a singularity generator." Four hours was never going to be enough time, thought Trip. He just hoped that the Major appreciated what he was asking Trip to do. Move a black hole, one of the most massive objects in the entire universe, and this was only a little one.
Two hours later, Darwin came to check on their progress.
"How's it going?" he asked Trip.
"I've identified the containment unit," said Trip. "That's the bit that we really don't want to turn off. If the containment unit goes then the black hole will drop through the floor and start munching its way through the planet. If we can maintain power to the containment unit then I think we might be able to move it. Problem is that we need a hell of a lot of power and I'm not quite sure how we can get it."
"We're running out of time, Trip," said Darwin.
"I know, I know," said Trip. "We're working as fast as we can here."
"Arroya to Darwin."
"Go ahead, Corporal," said Darwin.
"Sir, those contacts to the west. They're in visual range."
"They can't be," said Darwin. "I thought they were on foot."
"They are," said Arroya. "Except every so often they seem to disappear and then reappear a bit closer. Could be something to do with the light reflecting on the desert, but I don't know. Something very weird is going on here."
"You four keep working on this, let me know as soon as you've made any progress," said Darwin and he headed for the door.
Outside Arroya had found a lookout position on the second floor of one of the buildings. She handed her CO the binoculars that she'd been looking through. "About five clicks away, sir," she said pointing to the west.
"Just what we need," said Darwin, as he found a group of Faranoans coming towards them. There were about twenty or so in the group, all wearing the flowing robes that were traditional in this area. He blinked and suddenly the shapes were a lot closer. "What the hell...?"
"They've been doing that," said Arroya. "I wish I knew how."
"At that rate they'll be here in a few minutes," said Darwin. "Get Fenner down here with the shuttlepod, I'm thinking that we just might want to make a quick exit."
"Yes, sir," said Arroya.
"Where are Dempsey, Rush and Kanatova?"
"They're taking down the camp," said Arroya.
"When they're done, get them to stand guard at the generator room. No one gets into that building," said Darwin. "Anymore on the Klingons from Captain Hathaway?"
"They're still proceeding at the same course and speed, no change there," said Arroya.
"Okay, keep your eyes on those Faranoans. I'm going back to check on our resident engineer's progress," said Darwin. "One more thing, Arroya, make sure your weapons are set to stun. These are civilians."
"Yes, sir," asked Arroya.
Darwin left Arroya to keep an eye on the approaching Faranoans while he made his way back to the generator building. He heard her start to contact Dempsey to tell them to organise the guards for the generator building as he stepped out into the street. His boots scuffed sand around in the wind making the air thick with dust and he pulled his scarf up around his nose and mouth so that he wasn't breathing in the dust. The visibility around him was deteriorating rapidly. He was about to com Hathaway and ask if there was a storm coming towards their position when he saw some dark shapes in front of him. It was the group of Faranoans that he had seen not five minutes earlier approaching the city.
He drew his weapon and was very surprised when a voice spoke to him. "We can't allow you to take anything from the city."
"Who are you?" he asked.
"We are the guardians," replied the voice.
"You speak English?" he asked completely bewildered.
"A gift from the Builders," said the voice.
Darwin could hear the capital letter in the tone. The Builders were obviously important to the Faranoans, perhaps with some sort of religious significance. Maybe they were even trespassing on a sacred site by being here.
"If you'll just give us a couple more hours then we'll be out of here, but I think you should know that there are some guys called Klingons on their way here that you're going to want to watch out for," said Darwin.
"We are only concerned with protecting the city and what lies within it," said the voice and he stepped forward so that Darwin could see that he was a tall man clothed in a dark brown cloak. He held a long staff that was about the same height as he was but apart from that he was unarmed.
"I'm sorry but I can't let you interfere with our mission here," said Darwin. He fired his phaser stunning the first alien in front of him and then turned it on the rest of the party. The other aliens rushed towards him but luckily Arroya made her appearance at that moment and they were able to make a retreat towards the generator building.
"This isn't good," said Darwin to Arroya. "Get Dempsey, Rush and Kanatova here now."
"Yes, sir," said Arroya. She commed the other MACOs to converge on their position.
"What's Fenner's ETA?"
"About twenty minutes, sir," said Arroya.
"Okay, I want the four of you on the first shuttle back to the Thak Tikh. Fenner can come back and get the rest of us," said Darwin. He flicked open his communicator once more and called Trip. "We're out of time Lieutenant, you've got an hour to rig that thing to blow." He was basing the time frame on how long it would take Fenner to get back after his first run to the Thak Tikh. The shuttle couldn't carry everyone at once so it would have to be two runs.
"Sir, I've told you how dangerous that could be," said Trip.
"Trip, it's either we destroy it or the Klingons get hold of it," said Darwin. "I don't have time to argue. Do it, Lieutenant."
"Yes, sir, Tucker out," replied Trip. He turned around to the rest of the team. "We've got new orders, we're to rig this place to explode. We just have one problem, if we touch the containment unit then that black hole will run out of control. Antonia, I want you to document as much of this as you can. Didier, I need you and Carter to tell me what we can destroy and what we can't."
"Yes, sir," said all three, he barely noticed that Antonia had joined in even though she wasn't in the military, or the look of horror that had gone across her face at the idea of destroying all the alien technology. He'd have a talk with her about this later, he knew that for an archaeologist destroying anything unique was sacrilege. They had to follow orders though.
On the surface, the MACOs were holding the doorway to the building. They'd already had to stun the rest of the Faranoans when they arrived and they were now tied up securely with the five MACOs keeping a watchful eye over them.
"Shuttle's here, sir," said Rush, pointing at the descending form of the Andorian shuttle from the Thak Tikh.
"Good, the four of you need to get out of here now. I can hold this position until Fenner gets back since our Faranoan friends won't be bothering us anymore."
"Yes, sir," replied the four MACOs saluting as Fenner made a graceful touch down in front of them. They ran for the shuttle which took off again as soon as the four of them were inside.
"Darwin to Tucker," said Darwin into his communicator. "You have forty minutes, Lieutenant."
"Understood, sir," said Trip. "We should be ready in time."
"You must not do this," said the alien who had spoken to Darwin before.
"We're just making sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands," said Darwin in reply.
"You don't understand the forces that you are playing with. The Builders may have abandoned this city but they still watch over it and they do not like others interfering," said the alien. "The Guardians have been entrusted with its care. We will protect it when these Klingons come."
"I can see that you're really good at that," said Darwin sarcastically.
"You have no idea of the power of the Builders," replied the alien.
"Well until they show up, we're all that stands between the Klingons and that weapon," said Darwin.
"You have failed to understand how much danger you are in," said the alien.
Darwin shrugged. "I think I have a pretty good idea," he said. The alien did not reply.
They sat in silence for some time before Darwin's communicator chirped. "Darwin, go ahead."
"Hathaway, sir. Fenner is on his way back to you; he should be with you in about fifteen minutes. But I've got some bad news. The Klingons have arrived. I'm using the planet to shield us and stop them from detecting our presence, but they've just launched a shuttle. It's heading for your location, sir."
"God damn it, nothing about this mission has gone right," said Darwin. "Tell Fenner to step on it. We'll be ready to leave when he gets here. Darwin out." He went into the building. Behind him he heard a noise, a sort of rapid shuffling sound, he turned around to see what it was and found that the Faranoans were no longer sitting where they had been tied up. They had disappeared. "How the hell...?" He wanted to go back and look for them but he really didn't have time to worry about the Faranoans. He ran back into the building and was out of breath when he reached the generator room.
"Finish up what you're doing, we're leaving now," he said.
"I just need a few more minutes," said Trip. "You guys get going, I'll follow you."
"Okay, but no longer than a couple of minutes. I'm not waiting for you, Lieutenant," said Darwin.
"Don't worry, I ain't got any plans to become a permanent resident of this city," said Trip.
The MACOs and Antonia packed up their gear rapidly and made their way up the stairs and towards the exit. Just as they reached it they heard the sound of loud shouting in Klingon. The Klingons had arrived and obviously detected the same energy readings that they had. Darwin indicated for them to hide and let the Klingons pass, they didn't have time to get into a fire fight. Darwin counted eight Klingons as they walked past.
He looked round at Didier and Carter. "Where's Antonia?" he asked.
"She said she'd left a padd behind, she went to pick it up. She said she'd only be a second," said Didier. "The Klingons are heading for the generator room, Major."
"I'm aware of that," said Darwin. He knew Trip could take care of himself but if Antonia was there as well then that added an unknown element to the equation. "Didier, go and make sure that Fenner has a clear landing site. We're going to need to make a quick get away. Carter, you're with me. We're going to find Trip and Antonia."